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Why study small arms?
The American invasion of Iraq in March and April 2003 may sadly prove to be the best public relations boost that the study of small arms proliferation and its myriad effects ever receives. During the weeks of invasion, the police and military institutions that protected the resources of the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed, leaving virtually all of their resources in the hands Iraqi citizens. In the ensuing chaos, an estimated 7-8 million small arms flooded into civil society in a matter of weeks. One publication dedicated to studying proliferation, the Small Arms Survey (2004), has called this crisis the “single most significant small arms transfer the world has known.” Historians must ask themselves, when we turn to write the history of the Iraq War, will the sudden infusion of weapons into society play a prominent part? If we follow the pattern of previous histories of American military action abroad, then it probably will not. CENFAD, however, hopes to shift historical focus toward these issues, to draw attention to the ways that small arms can have a dramatic and shaping impact on all spheres of society. On July 9-10 2005, the History Department's Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy (CENFAD), with generous support from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, sponsored a conference held at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs titled, "Small Arms and Light Weapons: From a New Challenge to a New Field of Research." Building on the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation's Research Initiative on Small Arms (RISA) and its Spring 2005 Review CENFAD Assistant Director Dr. Regina Gramer of Temple’s Department of History and Dr. Edward Laurance of the Monterey Institute of International Studies sought to create a forum for scholars who conduct research on small arms issues from a wide range of disciplines. While the study of small arms and light weapons is a new research focus for historians at large, recent methodological developments within various social science disciplines and historical sub-fields have prepared the way for integrating small arms policy issues into the flourishing academic debate on transnationalism, gender studies, and human security. Small arms present a much graver challenge to developing societies than to established nation states. The small arms topic is ready-made to channel the most innovative trends that moved traditional security studies to human security studies.
Contact Information: Dr. Regina U. Gramer Tel: (215) 204-1718 | ||||